Observer Report
United Nations
After making significant gains in dealing with the upsurge of desert locusts in East Africa and Yemen, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) plans to launch a revised appeal for funding in the coming weeks to generate additional resources for Pakistan and Iran, which are also facing locust infestations.
An appeal from the Rome-based UN agency was launched in January which netted $130 million. It said that the funding had been largely concentrated on locust control activities, therefore, more support for livelihoods is needed.
“Governments have been working with the FAO to design, monitor and implement control operations,” it said, adding that the agency had also been providing pesticides, bio-pesticides, equipment, aircraft and training.
Given the favourable conditions for locust reproduction, the agency called for sustained efforts and more resources for Iran and Pakistan – which are facing locust attacks – and for scaling up efforts in the Sahel region, which risked being affected.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and other challenges, the FAO said, with its support an estimated 720,000 tonnes of cereal was saved from the swarms of migratory pests across 10 countries in East Africa and Yemen which was enough to feed 5 million people a year.
“However, more action is still needed to avert a food security crisis as the ongoing rainy season, which benefits farmers and pastoralists, also provides favourable conditions for locusts to breed,” agency chief Qu Dongyu stressed.
“Our gains have been significant; but the battle is long and is not yet over”, he said. “More people are at risk of losing their livelihoods and worsening food security in the coming months,” the FAO director general added.
FAO has released its first progress report on the locust control campaign which began in January and now covers 10 countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Yemen.
It was launched to protect crops and livelihoods from what are considered to be the most destructive migratory pests in the world. A single desert locust swarm, which can contain up to 150 million insects per square kilometre, is capable of eating as much food in a day as 35,000 people.
Through the FAO’s support, more than 365,000 hectares have been controlled, and an additional 350,000 pastoral households have been spared from distress. While swathes of treated land are now relatively locust-free, the agency warned that a second wave of locusts will transition to the young adult phase in June, at a critical time when many farmers prepare to harvest their crops.
The FAO said the upsurge is “particularly alarming” in the broader context. Forecasts made prior to the Covid-19 crisis indicate that more than 25 million people in the East Africa region will face acute food insecurity in the latter half of the year. An additional 17 million people in Yemen are already affected.
“We can and must protect vulnerable people from the impact of multiple crises: conflicts, climate extremes, desert locusts and Covid-19, which threaten to cause a further dramatic deterioration in their food security,” said Qu said. “To do this, we need to intensify our efforts further and focus not just on controls but on supporting the livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists so they can get through this.
